In March 2011 Morales argued with another man in an outside courtyard on Mattison Avenue in Asbury Park, Gramiccioni said. The argument turned into a fight and two men pulled Morales away and he left.

Shortly after, Morales went back to the courtyard and fired two shots at the man he was in an argument with, missing him, but striking another man at the scene, Enrique Nunez Galvin, who was one of the men who broke up the fight, Gramiccioni said. Galvin was treated and released from Jersey Shore Medical Center.

Morales was later arrested after an investigation involving the U.S. Marshals Service, prosecutor’s office and Asbury Park Police Department.

In addition to the 15 year sentence on the attempted murder charge, Morales was sentenced to eight years for second-degree aggravated assault causing serious bodily injury, four years for third-degree aggravated assault with a deadly weapon and eight years for possession of a handgun. The sentences will run concurrently.